Quotes By Lee Child

For me the end of a book is just as exciting as it is for a reader.

L.A. has a fantastic car scene and because the climate is so gentle, cars can last forever.

So long as readers keep reading and my publishers keep publishing, I plan to keep on writing. I'd have to be an idiot to be burnt-out in this job.

I wanted readers to be genuinely unsure as to whether she's telling the truth or lying. It meant making her partly sympathetic, and partly unsympathetic, which wasn't easy.

The key to thrillers is vicarious pleasure.

Male authors always take care to make their heroes at least one inch taller than they are, and considerably more muscular. Just as female authors give their heroines better hair and slimmer thighs.

I was fired from my television job, simple as that. Well, downsized, really, a classic 1990s situation.

I like food, like any other guy, but it is not the main thing in my life. I can do without it.

Yeah, I am pretty sure of myself.

The way to write a thriller is to ask a question at the beginning, and answer it at the end.

You mustn't fall in love with your own hero.

I've discovered writers by reading books left in airplane seats and weird hotels.

For men, as they get bogged down with responsibilities, commitments, bureaucracy, it is a fantasy just to think of shedding everything literally, walking away with nothing at all, and just hitting the road.

What do I miss about the UK? Sadly, almost nothing. Maybe the midnight sun, in June in the north. That's all.

You know, women are as promiscuous as men and yet, of course, people are inhibited from having an affair or a relationship because the real-world consequences are a drag.

It's always sad if anybody you know has a personal problem.

I felt alienated by the experience and decided to stay away from corporate employment.

I have three desks. One empty for paperwork, one for the internet and email, and one for the writing computer.

My mother still calls me Jim and that is about it. Everyone else calls me Lee. My wife calls me whatever.

I love visiting LA. It's an endlessly fascinating city, and is, of course, America's entertainment capital. Each time I go, I fall in love with it all over again. That said, it's not the sort of place I'd want to live.

The thriller is not a recent invention. It probably goes back to the dawn of storytelling.

It's always tense when you move a character from a book to the screen. Always tense.

I'm opposed to censorship of any kind, especially by government. But it's plain common sense that producers should target their product with some kind of sensitivity.